UTFacultiesBMSNewsHenrieke Veger-Van Den Berg wins 2021 Marina van Damme scholarship

Henrieke Veger-Van Den Berg wins 2021 Marina van Damme scholarship

During the 60th Dies Natalis of the University of Twente, the nineteenth Marina van Damme scholarship will be awarded to Henrieke Veger-van den Berg, a Business Administration alumna of the University of Twente. Henrieke has been active in the technical sector for over ten years, starting as a sales analyst and now working in a broad HR role at an electrotechnical SME. Henrieke: “The scholarship is an enormous incentive. I want to use it to help me become a driving force in this sector, towards achieving the transition to sustainable entrepreneurship.”

She sees multiple opportunities for a future proof and sustainable technical sector. From HR topics as the work/private balance, the development of soft skills to organisational themes like circular entrepreneurship, inclusivity and diversity. Henrieke plans to drive this change from within by intensifying collaboration with the sector association, widening her network, and actively sharing her knowledge of best and worst cases with competitive colleagues, in order to strengthen the sector. 

Programmes

Henrieke’s first goal is making her own organisation more agile: she wants to follow a serie of lectures, which focuses on agile business organisations and how HR can be its critical success factor. Henrieke is also keen to further develop her own skills in order to better manage and direct changes, and intends to follow the programme for Personal Effectiveness in Directing Change. Lastly, Henrieke will use her winnings for a third programme: Strategic Talent Management. This will enable her to take the next step in optimising the development of staff talent for a flexible organisation.

Sustainability

The jury was impressed by Henrieke’s ambition and drive in developing her skills to become a fully-fledged professional in the technical sector. She also clearly wishes to devote her energy to creating a better world, one centred on care for people, animals and the future. The committee unanimously nominated Henrieke Veger-van den Berg for the 2021 Marina van Damme Scholarship, which will help her learn how to deploy people sustainably and to apply sustainable working and organisational forms and business models. The scholarship will therefore support Henrieke’s ambition to have an impact on the technical sector.

This year’s jury comprised Ilonka de Beer, founder and owner of Sandalfon Sustainability; Annerie Bemthuis, operational director of AGAR Holding BV; Ingrid Breymann, winner of the 2003 Damme Scholarship; and Dr Maan-Leeftink, university lecturer in Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Twente.

The Marina van Damme Scholarship

The Marina van Damme scholarship is awarded each year to a talented female alumna from the University of Twente, and was awarded this year for the 19th time. The scholarship is awarded by the Twente University Fund and was made possible thanks to a donation by Dr M.A. van Damme-Van Weele. In 1965 she was the first woman to obtain a PhD at Twente Technical College, the institute that went on to become the University of Twente. The scholarship is intended to support the career development of a talented, ambitious, and enthusiastic UT alumna and to help her achieve new ambitions. The scholarship consists of a work by the artist Mohana van den Kroonenberg and a scholarship of €9000. This year 17 candidates had been put forward for consideration.

Dies Natalis 2021 has been postponed to may 2022

The 60th Dies Natalis 2021 has been postponed. At the heart of the special jubilee edition of the Dies Natalis, on 20 May 2022, are people’s stories and their inspiring, moving and often surprising connections. You can register online and experience the power of sixty years of personal commitment. You will discover that there is a connection between everything at UT – and beyond – and, even more importantly, that “every connection has a story". Let’s celebrate the fact that we have been telling inspiring stories for sixty years now.

drs. M.M.J. van Hillegersberg - Hofmans (Martine)
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